Surgical interventions require gaining access to the surgical site where viscera is damaged and/or diseased. This involves piercing or cutting an aperture into healthy tissue layers to gain access. For example, during a thoracotomy procedure, a surgeon would typically incise the skin between the ribs thus piercing one or more tissue layers with a trocar, scalpel or other sharp device to allow the insertion of a cannula or retractor to maintain an aperture in the tissue. Surgical instruments may be inserted through the cannula or retractor in order to access the surgical site. For example, a surgeon and/or interventionist would obtain access to a diseased or damaged aortic valve via a thoracotomy and myocardotomy via the apex of the heart. This procedure requires that a surgeon gain access to the myocardium of the patient's heart, e.g., via a small intercostal incision in the patient's chest. This procedure further involves incising the myocardium of the heart to form an access aperture, and insertion of a sheath introducer to maintain a desired diameter of the access aperture and to protect the heart tissue during subsequent insertion and/or removal of catheters and other instrumentation through the sheath. Catheters and other instrumentation may then be inserted through the cannula and into one or more chambers of the heart in order to repair defects or damaged portions of the heart.
Further, some pericardiocentesis procedures involve inserting a needle, via an intercostal opening in the patient, into the pericardial sac, guiding a flexible guide wire through the needle, and subsequent removal of the needle with the guide wire left in place. After removal of the needle, a tapered dilator may be advanced over the guide wire to dilate the opening in the pericardium tissue. The dilated opening, or tract, allows room for a catheter. After the dilation, the catheter is guided over the guide wire into the pericardial sac to drain fluid from the pericardium.
Transpericardial or transapical access to the myocardium is generally less intrusive than more traditional forms of surgery, since they generally require relatively small entry openings or apertures. However, these small apertures may be difficult to close, especially as the closure location is inside the patient's body. For example, referring the procedures described above, after removal of the sheath introducer and any catheters or other instrumentation extending therethrough, the aperture formed in the tissue, e.g., the heart or pericardium tissue, is closed within the patient's body. Since these exemplary procedures involve accessing the *patient's thorax through a small intercostal aperture through the patient's skin and other underlying tissues (e.g., fat and/or fascia), closure methods such as suturing are more complicated than with traditional open surgical procedures. In particular, applying sutures to a closure location inside the patient's body through a small aperture such as a mini-thoracotomy is more difficult and complicated than directly manipulating a suture needle by hand at an open surgical site. This difficulty can result in defective closures and/or closures that require more time than necessary.
Defective closures may expose the patient to increased risk of complications such as internal bleeding and/or infection. Even where defective closures are recognized and addressed prior to completion of the surgical procedure, the correction of defective closures increases the time required to affect the closure and may expose the tissue to additional trauma. It is generally desirable to minimize the amount of time for a surgical procedure in order to reduce the possibility of complications and unnecessary trauma to the patient.
Thus, there is a need for a closure mechanism and method that is simple to operate, reliable, and requires a small amount of time in which to form an effective closure.